Camelot statement on Gambling Commission decision

We accept the outcome of the Gambling Commission’s investigation into an allegation of fraud involving a National Lottery prize paid out in 2009 and have paid the financial penalty imposed.

The allegation is not related in any way to The National Lottery draws. It only concerns the controls that were in place at the time to prevent a fraudulent claim on a deliberately damaged ticket – and is limited to a unique incident alleged to have taken place over seven years ago.

As soon as the allegation was brought to our attention in late 2015, we immediately notified the Gambling Commission and were in contact with the police, and have co-operated fully with both of them ever since. Although the alleged incident occurred a long time ago, we have provided all possible assistance to help establish what might have happened in this very complex case.

The police confirmed earlier this year that they would be taking no further action following their own thorough investigation.

Public confidence in The National Lottery is of paramount importance. We have always sought to run The National Lottery with the utmost integrity and believe our outstanding operational record over the last 22 years underlines how seriously we take this responsibility. We therefore regret that, at the time of the alleged incident over seven years ago, there were weaknesses in some of the controls we had in place to prevent a potentially fraudulent claim of the very specific kind seen in this case.

As soon as we were made aware of the allegation, we commissioned PwC to review the processes relating to the alleged incident and the systems we have in place to prevent potential fraud. PwC found no evidence of any other similar circumstances.

Our internal fraud detection and prevention processes have evolved considerably over time, and we have strengthened them still further following this review. We are completely confident that the alleged fraud could only have been carried out under a unique set of circumstances and would certainly not be possible today.

Andy Duncan, CEO of Camelot, said: “It’s really important that people understand that this allegation relates to a unique, one-off incident dating back to 2009 and involves a potentially fraudulent claim on a deliberately damaged ticket. It has nothing to do with The National Lottery draws themselves.

“We accept that, at the time, there were some weaknesses in some of the specific controls relevant to this incident and we’re very sorry for that. We’ve strengthened our processes significantly since 2009 and are completely confident that an incident of this nature could not happen today. We welcome the Gambling Commission’s confirmation that this is the case.”